Ralph McQuarrie’s Original ‘Star Wars’ Concept Art Is Brought To Life In A Fan Trailer

Ralph McQuarrie did all of the original concept work for ‘Star Wars‘ and it is safe to say ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ went with a drastically different direction for some of the characters involved. However, the design influences are what ended up making many of the choices not only in the film but for future films as well. While we’ll never see many of his ideas grace the big screen, a visual effects student at the DAVE school in Florida decided that he wanted to bring these concepts to life and used a mixture of live actors and CG to give us some idea of the characters that were initially imagined.

If you’ve never seen the initial art, C-3PO looked drastically different, Han Solo almost looked like a relative of Groot from ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, and Luke Skywalker was a woman which would have given us a Jedi female leading lady much sooner than what ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ is finally starting to show and was hinted at in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’

You can check out this five minutes of fun right here!

There is some real talent shining through here to deliver what we ended up seeing. This was a ton of fun, and I hope you enjoyed watching it as much as I did! This original imagery really is a drastic change of what could have been in a galaxy far far away.

You can read the brief write up of their project below:

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away… we might have seen a version of Star Wars that featured a Han Solo with green skin and gills, Stormtroopers with lightsabers, and a female heroine named Luka Starkiller.

Many of these anomalies can be seen in concept artist, Ralph McQuarrie’s early illustrations of the Star Wars universe. While looking back at these early paintings, we can’t help but wonder what Star Wars would have been like had it remained loyal to the concept art and early drafts of the script.

The DAVE School graduating class of August and October 2017 have answered that question by bringing Ralph McQuarrie’s paintings to life in a concept trailer for what might have been… The Star Wars.

Find out more about our Visual Effects program at daveschool.com

Images from “Star Wars™ Art Ralph Mcquarrie” By Brandon Alinger, Wade Lageose, and David Mandel – Abrams, New York

Star Wars™ and its characters are registered trademarks of LucasFilm Entertainment Company LTD. or LucasFilm LTD. This production is not sponsored, endorsed by or affiliated with LucasFilm Entertainment Company LTD. LucasFilm LTD, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliated companies and/or third-party licensors.

Honestly, this was a lot of fun to watch and am thrilled that they did this.

Would you have preferred any of the original design choices for ‘Star Wars’ over what we ended up getting? Could you imagine Groot shooting first? Share your thoughts below!

Stuart Conover

Stuart Conover is a father, husband, blogger, published author, geek, entrepreneur, editor of Horror Tree, horror fanatic, science fiction junkie, lives in a world of comics, and a casual gamer (all of this when his wife lets him of course.) He fell in love with science fiction and horror at the same time while watching the movie Alien at probably far too young of an age while still being extremely impressionable and has been happily obsessed with both since! Around the same time, he had also developed an unhealthy addiction to comic books that continues to this day!Want to talk about anything geeky? Reach out on Twitter - @StuartConover